Rangers’ Numerous Injuries Shelve a Promising Season

Jim Adduci, scoring against the Yankees on Monday, is a longtime minor leaguer who has gotten a chance with the Rangers.

Adam Hunger / USA Today Sports, via Reuters

By ZACH SCHONBRUN

July 23, 2014

As he stood on second base Monday night, the Texas Rangers rookie Jim Adduci had a chance to banter with Derek Jeter. For Adduci, a 10-year veteran of the minor leagues, it was a sort of transcendental moment.

“He was just asking how I was doing,” Adduci said. “But for me, you know, it’s awesome.”

After spending close to a decade in the organizations of the Florida Marlins, as they were then known, and the Chicago Cubs, compiling nearly 3,000 at-bats without a big-league call-up and eating far too many peanut butter sandwiches on long bus trips, Adduci finally got a cameo with the Rangers in September — 31 at-bats.

Adduci, 29, a left-handed-hitting outfielder and first baseman, has found more opportunity this year. Nearly two dozen injuries have left the Rangers dealing with some serious attrition since the opening week of the season. Among those who have spent considerable time on the disabled list: a catcher, 6 infielders, 12 pitchers and even Adduci, who broke a finger.

The snakebit first half has contributed to an abrupt downfall for the Rangers, who won at least 87 games in each of the past five seasons and played in the World Series in 2010 and 2011. Normally considered a playoff contender in the American League, with money to spend on prized free agents thanks to a lucrative new television contract, Texas instead became the last team in baseball to reach 40 wins this season, doing so with Monday’s 4-2 victory over the Yankees.

At one point this year, the Rangers were 22 games behind the A.L. West-leading Oakland Athletics, their largest deficit so early in a season since 2003.

None of this seemed remotely possible last off-season when the Rangers signed the coveted outfielder Shin-Soo Choo and catcher J. P. Arencibia and made a blockbuster trade for Prince Fielder, all to load up their offense in anticipation of another postseason run.

Robinson Chirinos, one of a number of players forced into action for the Rangers, failed to avoid Francisco Cervelli's tag in the fifth inning Tuesday.

Barton Silverman / The New York Times

“On paper, we had a really good team,” outfielder Alex Rios said.

When the season arrived, however, so did a lot of bad luck. Catcher Geovany Soto, second baseman Jurickson Profar and pitchers Yu Darvish, Derek Holland and Matt Harrison did not make it out of spring training healthy. Then Fielder was lost to season-ending neck surgery in May. The disabled list continued to grow from there, reaching 22 players, a major league high, after Soto strained his groin Monday.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rios said, adding: “We were bit by the injury bug in a bad way.”

The Rangers suddenly went from being winter buyers to summer sellers, with Rios, closer Joakim Soria and the All-Star third baseman Adrian Beltre expected to command the most attention from clubs as the July 31 trade deadline approaches.

“We know the situation, how everything has been,” Beltre said. “But we can’t be O.K. with losing. We know we’re not going to win every ballgame, but at the same time we know we have a much better ball club than what we’ve showed.”

The feeling around the organization is that the injuries derailed expectations, but that the younger players, when given a chance to play every day, did not necessarily come through, either. And Choo — hitting .240 with 9 home runs and 34 runs batted in after Tuesday night’s 14-inning loss to the Yankees — has found it hard to live up to his seven-year, $130 million free-agent contract.

Manager Ron Washington’s first seven seasons with the Rangers had included some challenging moments, including his positive test for cocaine in 2009 and more recent tension with the front office over his contract. Now he has something new to deal with: a team that reminds him of the losing seasons he initially went through when he took over in the Texas dugout in 2007.

On Monday, as the four-game series in the Bronx was about to begin, Washington sat in the visiting manager’s office, put his cap on the desk and seemed to be trying hard to keep his frustration at bay.

Shin-Soo Choo looked on as Leonys Martin hauled in a fly ball in the second inning Tuesday. Before the season, the Rangers thought they had the talent to contend.

Barton Silverman / The New York Times

“We, more or less, are back in the mode of 2007 to 2008, trying to put something together,” he said.

The problem with all of the injuries, he said, was that the Rangers simply did not have enough reinforcements. He used the recent four-game sweep at home by the Los Angeles Angels as an example.

“We could’ve won three of those games,” Washington said. “But we just couldn’t keep up with them. They just wouldn’t stop. They kept coming. It was relentless.”

He paused. “Same thing happened in Toronto,” he said.

The Rangers could be headed for a rebuilding stage. Some minor league prospects, including the slugging first baseman Joey Gallo, looked promising in the Futures Game held on July 13 in Minneapolis as part of the All-Star Game festivities. Other young players could emerge, too. After all, the wave of injuries has allowed 15 rookies to play for the Rangers this season, tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the most in the majors.

For Adduci, hardly a prospect as he nears 30, the next two months could at least provide a chance to audition for next year’s club. Taking advantage of injuries to other players is not exactly the way he envisioned getting playing time in the big leagues, but he would like to capitalize.

“It’s still the big leagues,” Adduci said. “Any of these guys, if you play them in cards or in anything, they want to win. We’re all ultracompetitive people.”

Especially when they are not hurt.

Correction: July 26, 2014

Because of an editing error, an article on Thursday about the Texas Rangers’ struggles this season misstated one of the years the team played in the World Series. Besides 2011, the Rangers were in the World Series in 2010, but not in 2012.